


Oh Lord, There Ain’t No Heaven

by leftovercatharsis (delicate_mageflower)



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Alcohol, Bloodwing (Borderlands) - Freeform, Crimson Raiders - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Lilith/Roland (Borderlands) - Freeform, Self-Medication, Vault Hunters - Freeform, Where Angels Fear to Tread (Borderlands 2), Wildlife Preservation (Borderlands 2), platonic cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:40:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25731487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicate_mageflower/pseuds/leftovercatharsis
Summary: ”First Bloodwing, now this.”Maya, Mordecai, and a lot of rakk ale bond following the events of Where Angels Fear to Tread.
Relationships: Maya & Mordecai (Borderlands)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Oh Lord, There Ain’t No Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> This was titled "Mordecai needs a goddamn hug" in my Google Docs. Because I simply had a lot of feelings about Mordecai and his, as noted, really needing a goddamn hug. Therefore, this noise needed to happen.

“First Bloodwing, now _this.”_

Roland is dead and Lilith is captured, and the Crimson Raiders are in mourning. The Raiders HQ is almost entirely empty, with the most notable exception of Mordecai…and Maya.

Maya was the one who was there when Bloodwing died, and she was the one who had to watch it all go down at Control Core Angel. And she doesn’t feel right leaving Mordecai alone.

Neither does she particularly wish to be alone, herself, but…

She could have gone to Moxxi’s with most of the other recent inductees. Salvador and Zer0 practically dragged Axton, who seems to be especially not taking what happened to Roland and Lilith very well. But Maya didn’t join and she didn’t ask.

Mordecai is talking to himself, and he looks up at Maya when she walks into the room with pure ire in his eyes.

“What do you want?”

He is seated on a couch surrounded by empty bottles, and he smells like a damn distillery. Maya does not allow herself to be deterred, however, and invites herself to take a seat beside him.

“Rakk ale?” Mordecai offers, although his demeanor does not change.

“Sure,” Maya accepts and he hands her a full one.

“Tastes like ass,” she follows after a try.

“Never said it didn’t,” Mordecai simply shrugs. “Whatever, it’s good for what ails you. Heh, ale, ails, get i—ah, never mind.”

“Mordecai,” Maya says softly. She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to tell him here, but she needs to tell him _something._ “Shit, I…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop it, I…”

“No, you couldn’t.” He is grieving and notably drunk, but he won’t let Maya take the blame for any of the reasons behind his current state. “Jack _will_ die for this, _amiga._ For Blood, for Roland…”

“For Lilith,” Maya mutters before downing half the bottle of this piss poor excuse for alcohol.

 _“Pendeja_ did that to herself,” Mordecai seethes. “Roland told her not to go, and she couldn’t fucking listen, she—”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I— _fuck._ No, I don’t. But goddammit, why the hell’d she have to run off like that? We couldn’t stop her, shit…”

“No, you couldn’t,” Maya echoes. “Can’t blame her not wanting to listen to Angel. We had no reason to trust her fully, we didn’t know… But wow, _that_ was the most fucked up thing I have ever seen.”

“And that’s saying a lot for Pandora,” Mordecai chuckles.

“Yeah, no kidding.” She takes another swig and each goes down easier than the last. She’s pretty sure whatever the receptors are in her throat which react to it are being brutally murdered by the ounce. “Pandora was a mistake. Not me coming here but I mean, like, the actual planet.”

“Abandon hope all ye who enter,” Mordecai laughs, but he follows with a solemn sigh. “Tina’s gonna be fucking _shattered.”_

“Yeah. I know. Gaige went after her. Thought she should hear it in person. From a friend.”

“Good. Yeah. Good. Good as it can be.”

Another bottle crashes to the floor. He’s _gone,_ and Maya is increasingly eager to follow.

It breaks her heart a little that Lilith can’t even grieve. As if it isn’t bad enough on its own she’s basically being tortured. Maya heard her ECHO logs with Roland, though, she knows better than most just how deeply in love with him Lilith still was.

This is all _so_ fucked up.

“But what I really don’t understand is why Angel only warned Lilith—why Jack was apparently never going to take _me.”_ Maya drops her own empty, and a new one is in her hand before she can blink.

“Lil has history with Jack,” Mordecai shrugs. “Hell, she’s the one who fucked up his real face. No doubt he wanted her power, but I bet it was also about _revenge.”_

“But still, if I had been the only other Siren there…”

“Who the fuck knows. No offense but Lil’s got that whole extra special Eridium control thing going on, so maybe, maybe not. Nothing we can do about it now except drink and get that son of a bitch back.”

“The way he used his own daughter…”

Maya is figuring out she’s a lightweight. She’s not complaining about it, but it _is_ making her a bit chattier than she’d like to be at the moment.

“Bloodwing was a beautiful bird,” she says, developing a slight slur. She doesn’t know when her second bottle was through but she’s being handed a third. “She was…she was so _majestic.”_

 _“Mija,_ Blood was my _baby._ I can’t believe…”

As a fourth ale magically disappears, Maya cuts him off by wrapping him in an awkward hug and he could never have admitted how badly he _needed_ this.

And somehow Maya does not for a single second worry her intentions might be misinterpreted. There is no sexual tension in this and Mordecai doesn’t read any. He just hugs her back, letting the sorrow he can’t currently conceal melt into this strange display of platonic affection.

He might even cry if he wasn’t so goddamn numb, but tangled up in Maya, the only other person besides Lilith whose future nightmares about this bullshit could come anywhere close to a match with his, he lets go and relaxes for the time being, letting himself become pliant in her arms and fuck, she needs this too.

At some point they end up horizontal on this ratty old couch, surrounded by plenty of intact empty bottles and even more broken glass strewn across the floor, engulfed in the horrible smell Maya’s already become immune to, and she’s got Mordecai tight in her grasp from behind while he holds her hands at his chest.

Mordecai has some ideas about finding where the Warrior is buried, but that can wait until morning. Everyone else is scattered around and most of them are probably also shitfaced by now anyway, so they’re not in such a rush it needs to be done literally this second. Besides, he and Maya both need to sleep this off. He’s had way more than usual and she’s not used to it at all, so they’re in no shape to fight regardless.

And it would feel wrong to bust right back into battle. Roland had a big impact on a lot of people, after all. Despite everything, it’s only right to take the day. It’s only respectful. It’s probably not what he would have wanted, but it feels wrong not to.

Jack will pay for this. He _will._ Tomorrow.

For now, Maya and Mordecai will never speak of this again, but they’re not breaking away until they have to.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a reference to [the end credits song from Borderlands](https://youtu.be/2czl5EE7KtA), just because.
> 
> Also Gaige and Tina are totally besties and you can't change my mind.


End file.
